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Topic: New Course Design !*&%&* (Read 7756 times)

Absolutely Becky. I have an abysmal Q rate in Regular so those changes in Regular are huge for me. Now if they want to make Chances harder .... go for it, but I suspect there would be a huge outcry if they did that. All in all if my dog an I are having fun I don't worry about Q rate. We will see what the new challenges are and go from there.

Gina

I certainly saw some extra challenging chances courses the weekend before halloween - but I'm already terrible there I TRIED!

(And yes, Edraith, that trial site is absolutely gorgeous. Greenhill park in Salem, VA. There's even a river/creek not too far a walk away. Beautiful, beautiful, place to be and play.)

You know the other thought I had is that while I know it was mentioned at Champs that the Elite level courses would be seeing new challenges was it ever mentioned here on the forum? It would be nice to know kind of where things are headed as in what are some general differences we might be seeing.

We find in my job as a civil servant who likes to make plans to rip up roads and "take" their property that if you let people know about it often and early by the time the event actually reaches them they are prepared and have come to terms and even sometimes found some positives in the situation.

Honestly, as much as I like forewarning, I think all that would really happen if it's announced in the forums is that the outcry and complaining would happen in a centralized location and be more visible and probably feed itself - and be something that the course designers, judges, and administration at NADAC would have to experience.

Maybe announcements at judges attending trials a month or so in advance or something? but putting it on line just centralizes it in a way that may not be helpful. But that's just initial response to the idea, based on seeing forum reactions to changes in the past.

I just don't want NADAC to become like the other venues. I have plenty of places to trial locally if I want to try to find a handling path thru a plethora of obstacles. I'm here because I like flow. I'm not hung up on Qing, but if my dog and I aren't having fun I don't need to waste my money on that either. I'll wait to see where it all heads, I just hope the quest to get people to try NADAC doesn't push me out.

It disheartens me when I see people complain about challenging course designs or new challenges in agility. Personally, I like it when I walk a course and go, "Hmm, I'm not sure how to handle that," or, "I'm not entirely sure what my dog will do there." That's why I enjoy going to agility trials, so that I can be challenged by the courses and the things that other people think up. If I just wanted to watch my dog run really fast and go over obstacles I'd set up big speed circles in my yard and save the money I spend on trialing.

I've experienced this in another organization as well, not just NADAC. People want their Q's and sometimes I think they'd happily run a circle or figure-8 to get them. I always hope that those words don't make it back to the judges who designed those courses, because I don't want to discourage them from coming up with fun new challenges.

I *like* it when I go to a trial and come away with something new to train. I *like* having to handle my way through a course. I haven't seen this particular set of courses that people seem to be grumbling about, but I certainly hope for similar fun challenges at our NADAC trial coming up next month.

Some of the courses that everyone is hating so much, are just reworked courses from 10 years ago.

These arenít new challenges. They are just skills that people decided to stop training because we werenít asking for those skills anymore.

But it did make me giggle a little bit when I got an email about how anti nadac a certain course was, when it was designed by Sharon back in 2007.

So I think maybe folks should give it a shot before completely quitting. I have faith that everyone can do these challenges and succeed, because you definitely succeeded ten years ago on them when the wrap was on a jump instead of a hoop.

I was actually thinking something along those lines Chris. I much prefer the wrap on a hoop than over a jump. For my Echo that is almost a guaranteed knocked bar. I choose to run NADAC over other venues for a variety of reasons. I love the flow of the courses. I love the emphasis on what is best for the dog. Mostly, I very much appreciate that the people who have the power to make changes are very open and willing to listen to the exhibitors. That is huge.I have only been running agility for three years. I have competed in CPE, AKC, ASCA and NADAC. I always come back to NADAC. My dogs are happiest running these courses. Having said that, I do like a challenge. I like the idea that we will see "new" things from time to time. It keeps us fresh. If I don't handle the challenge successfully, then I have homework to do.

When I look through the courses I have saved, going back to 1995, I can see them changing to become more difficult, then less flowy, then back to pretty simple and more flowy. I remember the first time we saw a wrap on a course and we all whined about it and then went home and trained it and it became simple. Then we whined when we saw a hoop and then we went home and trained it and it became simple. Gosh can't we all go back to the first time we saw a discrimination and whined about it and now it has become simple (mostly!!). Let's all just go home and train "it" and it will become simple!!

Doing a wrap around a hoop really isn't all that different than going around a barrel! Pretty much the same challenge - just with a different obstacle!

Seriously! I have seen some amazingly tight wrapping around barrels where the dog's shoulders are nearly touching the barrel around the whole thing.

No other venue has courses with as much simplicity in flow as NADAC. Where would anyone complaining about here go, other than just not do agility at all? Even CPE is more technical, and many look down on that as the "easy" venue. Anywhere else, you'd have to pay attention to judges' course designs in order to figure out who creates the courses you like. You know what you get in NADAC.

My only concern about one of the Regular courses we ran was tight enough that the Aframe could trip the handler as they tried to keep up and run the line with the dog. I had to make a mental note to give myself enough room around it. I don't usually have that issue that I've encountered on other Regular courses.I think it would be fun to see more challenging Chances courses! (ok, don't everyone yell at me). LOL! I LOVE Chances and have a blast with them. I'd love to have an all Chances trial! haha!